Ripped off buying rabbits! : Hopping Mad

Rabbits for profit… Rabbits for fun… Rabbits for just about everyone…

RabbitTalk.com has a new visual style and some new features!It's a big change, and it'll take a bit for everybodyto get used to, but we hope you will love it!

RabbitTalk has changed hosts.The amazing response to our recent donation campaign hasallowed us a significant upgrade to the type of hosting we can purchase.The new server is performing wonderfully so far!Thank you to all who have helped!

RabbitTalk Blogs are reinstated.We now have sufficient resources to continue providing our member blogs.We apologize for the brief interruption in service while we moved.

I purchased 4 beautiful pedigreed Dutch rabbits end of July, one is even a Grand Champion who was championed by her breeder. I purchased 2 junior does, a junior buck, and a proven senior doe ( the Grand Champion one ). Little did I know that this breeder I bought them from was also an American Rabbit Breeders Association register. Great! I thought, these must be good stock for me to start off with since I sold and butchered my Mini Lops. I have ALWAYS wanted a black Dutch and I mean always have. I bought a steel, 2 blacks, and a gray.

The night I brought them home, one of the does had diarrhea. I texted the breeder and explained to her that I kept all of the rabbits on the same feed that she sent me home with, she insisted that the doe's stomach was probably just upset from the transition to a new home and all. Okay fair. Thankfully I did keep these rabbits away from my current ones. Fast forward 2 weeks later and this doe is on and off with her diarrhea, she has given her diarrhea to my junior ( and only! ) pedigreed Champagne D' Argent doe with Grand Champion linage. I'm assuming it spread to her some how since this doe was completely fine before I bought the Dutch. I again text this breeder and explain that it is not going away and now one of my other rabbits has it. Again she claims that they were fine at her place.

Now the buck gets diarrhea and completely stops eating. No pellets, hay, nothing! He won't even drink water. Less than 48 hours later he dies. I AGAIN text this breeder and tell her my buck has died. She says sorry and drops it. My Grand Champion doe and the junior doe both come down with diarrhea. Bonus point; the steel has gunky eyes. Finally she says that she has no idea what is wrong! I asked for a replacement buck at least, she says she has a 1 year old she can let go of, but when I ask for his pedigree she never replied. I asked for a money refund. Same thing...nothing!

Now I am very angry. I also lost my Champagne D' Argent doe to the sickness. I do not want someone else to go through this like I did. I lost Seth and Zinc and my money! I am ready to file a complaint with the ARBA and get her fired.

Last edited by MaggieJ on Thu Aug 31, 2017 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Edited Title - Relevance

The ARBA doesn't handle complaints like this. Unless it relates directly to her registering, they won't deal with it. I'd say this has nothing to do with her being a registrar: the title should be 'breeder rips me off' instead, imo.

Now, the first thing to do is find out what is wrong with the rabbits. Diarrhea is a symptom, not a disease, and quite a few non-contagious things cause it too. The champagne might've died for a completely unrelated reason, and the new ones had a poor transition and/or didn't like their new feed or something. You just don't know. If you really want to be sure, talk to a vet (maybe send in a test or cocci, or e cuniculi), and send in some samples or if you still have a body (im not sure how recent this was), see if you can find a lab that does necropies if you don't want to try to find anything yourself (or if you have, and couldn't find anything). Even if there is something, the breeder likely didn't know about it; many diseases only come out during stress; so they might've been fine at her place, and then the stress of moving let something surface. If it's been two weeks already (assuming they're out of quarantine -- although quarantine is supposed to be more than four weeks)... most people don't replace or refund rabbits after that long. Everybody has her own sales policy, and I don't know what hers is. To me, it seems more likely that there was bad luck or transitioning problems here, and not like she ripped you off.

I am sorry for your loss.... I in no way want to seem rude or marginalize your loss....

I often find that rabbits do not transition well; especially young animals! (under 6 months)

Each Rabbitry is different.. even the one down the road is different from yours.As an example:You might have a herd that is very resistant to cocci, or e cuniculi.. and another rabbitry is very resistant to mites. Your rabbitry might have one of those issues, but in so very minute amounts, that you never have issues. Because your rabbits have been raised and bred to be resistant; the minute you bring a new rabbit in (with a weakened immune system from transport) bam.... you have a sick rabbit....

I make a point of feeding hay with minimal pellets the first week... I also carefully monitor condition, poop, feed, water etc ...... sometimes I boost with electrolytes, Bene-bac or Pro-bios to help the rabbit with transition.... sometimes I loose them .... sometimes I don't .... if they were fine for the quarantine, then chances are that the rabbit is fighting something that exists in my herd.

Breeding Magpie Harlequin Rabbits for Showing, Meat and Pelts... Working towards a farm to raise animals with respect and care.Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada

I have had the same experience as SarniaTricia with bringing in new rabbits. In retrospect, I have concluded that my rabbits had an asymptomatic condition, probably a non-virulent form of pasteurella. They were apparently very healthy, very hardy rabbits, but none of the new rabbits that I brought in (only three over a period of perhaps six years) thrived long-term. One died within twenty-four hours of being integrated with my own rabbits - which should have alerted me, but I was still inexperienced then.

I would not be too quick to blame the breeder, OldEnglishSilvers. As far as I can see, the fact that she is also an ARBA register is not relevent to the problem. I would appreciate it if you would edit your topic title accordingly.

I do feel she could have been more responsive and helpful, but your post has a lot of anger in it, and if you contacted her in the same tone, that perhaps accounts for her lack of response.

MaggieJ wrote:I have had the same experience as SarniaTricia with bringing in new rabbits. In retrospect, I have concluded that my rabbits had an asymptomatic condition, probably a non-virulent form of pasteurella. They were apparently very healthy, very hardy rabbits, but none of the new rabbits that I brought in (only three over a period of perhaps six years) thrived long-term. One died within twenty-four hours of being integrated with my own rabbits - which should have alerted me, but I was still inexperienced then.

Here's a question: Had anyone here ever had this happen and successfully integrated new stock?

I finally made arrangements to get a trio of French Angora in November. I planned to keep 1-2 of my existing herd, who are farm-rabbit mutts, and while they're healthy and hardy it wouldn't be much of a stretch to imagine them as carriers given that history. Based on this my planned quarantine is all well and good, but may not help as it might be that my existing stock is a threat...

I don't want to cull my whole existing herd (at minimum, I want to keep my F1 doe, Jet) but the safety of the new Angoras would have to take precedence if there really isn't any way to control this...

all you can do is quarantine your new animals away from your existing herd. Take care of them last, change clothes etc before handling them again.Keep them isolated for a month, gradually getting them used to your food and water and handling methods.Then slowly integrate them into your herd.

Some rabbits have great immune systems and can fight off anything, others don't. it's a bit of a Luck of the draw situation whenever bringing new rabbits into a situation, or sending rabbits out to a new rabbitry.

I don't think you were ripped off. As others have said, some times you get a crap shoot. However, the GC doe had to have gone to at least 3 shows, been under lots of stress at least 3 times. She had to be around many other rabbits, least 6 from different breeders 3 times. I'm not saying the breeder shouldn't have been a lil more understanding, but because of how frail rabbits are and how different every one is 2 weeks is like an eternity with rabbits and if strict quarantine wasn't followed even shoes can pass stuff around. She had to have a fairly decent immune system to be OK during all the shows and traveling to/from...

Does the poo stink? Do they huddle or just found dead? Did you try to treat in any way? Term cull as soon as sick? It isn't unheard of for a stressed bun to have runs for a day or two after coming to a new place, even some go off feed.

Just went through something like this. We lost two rabbits and one was on SQ fluids for two weeks and we thought we were going to lose her, as well. Sorry for your loss. It can be so heartbreaking and frustrating especially when the breeder doesn't express any concern about it.

My advice: take some fecals to your vet. Not too pricey, most of the time, and then you'll have an answer and a solution. My solution was Albon, which is a very affordable drug, and it took all of the worry away.